Posts Tagged ‘Carrots’

Growing carrots is easier than some people think, and growing them in containers is not impossible. In fact you can now buy carrot seeds that are specific to container growing because they are short and stumpy but wider than your average ‘ground grown’ carrots.
The most important thing to remember with any root vegetable is that they hate being moved, because of this you should never start any rooties in one place, and then move to another when they get bigger. Where you sow, is where you will grow.
Soil. Carrots like a sandy soil so that they can move easily in their ‘home’ while they are growing. They, like other rooties, are also thirsty all the time. The best way to check if your little ones need watering is to dip your finger into the soil (away from the veggies) to abou

As spring has sprung, we decided to spend Saturday afternoon down on the allotment and what a lovely afternoon it was! The sun came out and at times, it really did feel like spring was in the air!
We hadn’t spent much time down there recently so it seemed like there was a lot to do. I guess that’s always the thing with gardening. So we weeded all our raised beds and checked on how things were doing. The things we planted in late autumn last year like garlic, bunching onions and broad beans are all doing well, so that’s good to see!
We filled our last raised bed and cold frame with a mixture of topsoil, compost and charcoal. It’s good to know that everything is good to go as things warm up.
We planted out our broad beans (‘Aquadulce Claudia’) that we have brought on

Carrots and other root crops are known for being tricky customers. They have the tendency to fork in soils that are stony, shallow or uncultivated and they are constantly under attack from pests. In the case of carrots, they are particularly vulnerable to the ever mysterious and stealth-like Carrot fly.
Despite their flaws they are undoubtedly one of the best vegetables to grow at home or at the allotment. A fresh, crunchy carrot is a joy to eat and the home grown ones always taste infinitely more carroty and delicious. Kids love them, which makes it all the more worthwhile and they are versatile in the kitchen, used in soups, as boiled vegetables, grated in salads or even juiced or pureed.
For those of you that have poor or stony ground, may lack the space needed for conventiona

The Easter bunny is doing its rounds as we speak and I’m sure that he\she would be delighted with my selection of more unusual and slightly exotic looking carrots.
It’s thought that when Carrots were first brought to Europe, from Afghanistan 5000 years ago, they would have been coloured purple or yellow. Over time, and during development to produce a viable and sweeter commercial crop, a preference was made for orange Carrots and we lost sight of their often more exciting relatives. With a resurgence in popularity for purple vegetables over the past couple of years a few of the purple cultivars have now come back in to production and have been improved somewhat to make them more palatable and easier to grow successfully.
Aside from the purple vegetables an interest has also